Natural Bridge

The Natural Bridge of Virginia, stretching across a gorge over 200 feet deep, was surveyed by George Washington for Lord Fairfax, and Thomas Jefferson purchased it from King George III for twenty shillings on July 4, 1774 to ensure it was available to the public. During the Revolution, Colonists dropped molten lead from the top of the Natural Bridge, using it as a natural "shot tower" to make bullets used to defeat the British. During the war of 1812, earth from a nearby cave mined for saltpeter, used in making gunpowder.

Jefferson called it  "undoubtedly one of the sublimest curiosities in nature."   It is 90 feet long, 150 feet wide at one end and 50 feet wide at another. The span contains 450,000 cubic feet of rock, weighing about 36,000 tons and U.S. Route 11 still passes over the bridge itself.